Ida Nudel Charged with ‘hooliganism’

Ida Nudel, one of the most prominent Jewish emigration activists in Moscow, has been charged with “malicious hooliganism” and will go on trial in 20 days, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed today. The information was relayed by Mrs. Genya Intrator, vice chairman of the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry, who was told of Ms. Nudel’s plight by Maria Slepak in a telephone call from Moscow. She is the wife of the currently imprisoned activist Vladimir Slepak.

According to the information, Nudel was summoned to the investigation department of the Moscow militia (police) of the Volgagradsky precinct where she lives. After interrogation she was charged with “malicious hooliganism” on the streets on June 2 and advised that she would be placed on trial in 20 days. She was released after signing a pledge not to leave Moscow. The charge carries a penalty of 1-5 years in prison.

On June 2, Nudel and 13 other activists assembled at the Pushkin monument outside the apartment building where the Slepaks live to protest the couple’s arrest earlier in the day. The Slepaks were hauled out of their flat by plainclothesmen after they hung a sign from their balcony demanding the right to be reunited with their son in Israel. Mrs. Slepak was released later for medical reasons but her husband remains in detention.

The protesters were arrested and taken to the local police station where Nudel was separated from the others. She was questioned and ordered to appear before the investigation department today. Nudel, known as the “guardian angel” of Jewish “Prisoners of Conscience” in the Soviet Union, is a single woman in her middle forties. She has long been active in the emigration movement. Her repeated applications for an exit visa, beginning eight years ago, have all been refused.